Growth and Happiness At Work

It's a blistering 30 degrees outside, Michael is walking down the street in shorts and a T-shirt. Many drive past, curiously looking at him. But one family turns the car around.
History's Most Brilliant People Shared One Habit That Made Them Most Productive. Image Credit: Getty Images They took breaks.

Contrary to what your boss would have you believe, pushing back your chair and leaving the computer behind after a few hours of intense focus can actually make you more productive. A short mid-afternoon break gives your brain the chance to process a storm of complex thoughts and perform better.
Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. “I’ll feel more like it tomorrow.” How often have you said that? What you mean, in other words, is that my present self doesn’t feel like doing it today, but certainly my future self will tomorrow. But is this ever true? This discrepancy between present and future selves is important in terms of understanding procrastination. Our delay today provides relief to our present self but only at a cost to our future self, who will eventually have to get the task done. Our present self feels a little better by delaying action now.

Body Language of the Hands. “Among all species, our human hands are unique -- not only in what they can accomplish, but also in how they communicate. Human hands can paint the Sistine Chapel, pluck a guitar, maneuver surgical instruments, chisel a David, forge steel, and write poetry. They can grasp, scratch, poke, punch, feel, sense, evaluate, hold and mold the world around us. Our hands are extremely expressive; they can sign for the deaf, help tell a story, or reveal our innermost thoughts.” (“ What Every Body is Saying , ” Harper Collins) No other species has appendages with such a remarkable range of capabilities.

And yet if you asked most people about the nonverbals ( body language ) of the hands, they would be hard pressed to tell you all the things the hands reveal. It is interesting that our brain gives a disproportionate amount of attention to the fingers, and hands, as compared to the rest of the body.
How-to-live-longer-find-your-purpose-in-life-9365420. According to the researchers, their results suggest that creating a purpose for yourself could promote healthy ageing throughout adulthood.

“Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose,” says lead researcher Dr Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada. Purposefulness has previously been found to be one of the strongest predictors of longevity, but this is the first study in which this effect has been isolated from other psychological and social influences on lifespan. It is also the first to include younger age groups. Having a sense of purpose was consistently linked to longer life across all age categories, leading Dr Hill to believe that “the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur.
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The 4 Major Roadblocks to Happiness. A recent Harris poll revealed that only 33 percent of Americans are very happy.

If happiness is a natural state of being, why is this number so low? What is keeping us from being happy?
Happiness and productivity. What's the best way to ensure that your employees become more productive?

Keeping them happy is the simple answer. Economists and researchers have been carrying out various experiments and tests to determine whether happy employees work harder.
The effects of bullying last a lifetime. Now more than a decade later, thankfully most people have come to understand the terrible consequences that bullying can have on young people – leaving far too many feeling they have no escape other than by harming themselves, or even taking their own lives.

This landmark study by King’s College London highlights the incontrovertible truth that bullying not only robs young people of their childhood, but also directly affects their health, social relationships and earning potential for the rest of their lives.
Success Outside the Dress Code.

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Veins: a Scandinavian photobook full of blood, nudity and human strangeness. "Anders Petersen showed me that photography is a way of life in itself," Jacob Aue Sobol once told me.

"Just the way he immerses himself in the subject. You look at his pictures and you feel that he had to make them.
An iceberg sunk the Titanic, right? Wrong.
David Buchanan BA (Hons) PhD FRSE Chartered FCIPD is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Cranfield School of Management.

Daniel Goleman's New Focus. What’s your focus?

How do you decide? Do feelings play a role? Daniel Goleman’s new book explores the research and practice of attention — which turns out to be a powerful tool to create positive change.
Training Programmes - DY 3Solutions Ltd. HR guide to depression in the workplace. We all have mental health just as we have physical health – it moves up and down along a spectrum from good to poor.

Considering how much time we spend at work, it’s not surprising that our jobs can affect our wellbeing. Mental health problems are very common, and are also on the rise, in no small part due to the economic downturn.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP INSIGHT: The Ideal Employer A-Z (Poster)
The 12 Habits Of Highly Collaborative Organizations. 6 lessons from 'Scandal' on how to be a rock star professional. I recently started watching "Scandal.
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Unambitious Loser With Happy, Fulfilling Life Still Lives In Hometown. Leadership Fables: The Frog, The Crab, and The Monkey. The Power of Authenticity: Mike Robbins at TEDxGreenbrookSchool. Stephen Covey: Five Emotional Cancers. The Four Strategies to Staying Curious in Learning (Part 2)
In my last post, I explored how the “learning curiosity” stage of the continuous learning circle helps you make the best use of the resources around you to gain what you need to push your career in a new direction.

Change Acceleration: A Behavior Engineering Primer. Command and Control management: have we really moved on?
‘Command and Control’ is a phrase that we only use nowadays in connection with modern management in a tone of amused irony. We all know about command and control as the management system of choice from the earliest days of the major modern corporations—and we have definitely ‘moved on’.
You Aren't Indestructible or Indispensable — And That's Good. The 'Busy' Trap. Appreciative Inquiry - DY 3Solutions Ltd. There is an understandable bias to view development from a Problem Solving Perspective. This approach has in many ways been the bedrock of consultative relationships and whereas it is a genuine step towards identifying potential; areas for development, there is an appreciable risk that in so doing we set aside the invaluable recognition of what it is we are doing well.

There is an alternative approach that might make a more positive contribution to increasing understanding and capacity to develop a positive change agenda that meets some of the challenges and opportunities identified above. There is a series of techniques and approaches within the framework of “Appreciative Inquiry”.
An Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry summary. Wisdom From the Giant of Giants. Searching for Peter Drucker quotes? Peter Drucker (1909 to 2005) influenced management thinking like few others. In our view his ideas should be essential reading on any MBA program or any business degrees. The Happy Manager frequently draws on the wisdom and insights Drucker’s writing brought to management theory.

So whether you are studying for a business management degree, or simply keeping yourself up-to-date enjoy reading this collection of Drucker quotes. Since writing “The Practice of Management” in 1955, Drucker led the way in developing the modern discipline of management.
An Uncomfortable Paradox: Control Freaks. YouTube.